Policeman Y: His Ballads on War and the Military. With
Illustra- tions. By John E. Soden. (J. 0. Rotten.)—" Policeman Y " challenges, whether he will or no, a comparison with a well-known confrere, "Policeman X." And, in truth, he is not witty or wise enough to bear it. The humour of queer spelling wearies one after a while, and there is but little humour that we can see of any other kind. Here is Mr. Soden at his 'host
"By a gon'ralship's requited, Him who brings a lot to grief ; Kill ton thousand he'll be knighted ; Double that, command'r-in-chief. Fifty thousand,—through this hove ago
Loud he'll have his praises sung Half a million gets a peerage ;
Kill bat one and you gets hung. " Whilst you deals destrucslum utter To a hundred thousand mon, If you put up one chap's shutter You'll be told of it agen.
What you do wholesale don't shock, it's Petty crimes agi'n one tells; Jest as one may not pick pockets, May start oorap'neys or hotels."
Eighty pages of slang, bad.spolling, and reflections that are perhaps, a trifle too sensible, eighty pages which are not, on the whole, equal to the
specimen which we have givon, and over which we never felt the least inclination to burst into a laugh as we read, are distinctly tiresomo. Tho illustrations have nothing more than convontienal humour. The sketch of the German rifleman, opposite to p. 38, is perhaps the best.
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